#SavePepe: cartoon frog's creator tries to take meme back from alt-right

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On Twitter, Spencer said there was “no serious damage” and that he can “take a punch”. He also put a video on Periscope in which he said he was with documentary film-makers and had walked into a “serious demonstration in Franklin Square” and said he was later spat on. He later posted a longer video to YouTube.

Spencer tweeted that he had filed a police report on Saturday; a Metropolitan police department spokesperson confirmed that a report was filed. The police department said no one has been arrested in Spencer’s case.

Others compared the act of punching Spencer to punching Nazis, which occurred in Indiana Jones films and in Marvel Comics’ Captain America. The first issue of Captain America, in 1941, featured the red, white and blue-clad superhero punching Hitler in the face.

On Twitter on Friday, writer Gerry Duggan said such punches were “as American as apple pie”; the blow that hit Spencer, he said, was actually an “alt-highfive”.

The attack sparked debate over the use of violence in political discourse, including a column from the Spectator. The New York Times summarized the debate in a piece headlined: “Attack on Alt-Right Leader Has Internet Asking: Is It OK to Punch a Nazi?”